Lots of Useful Tools

In the "lout" directory, there are some common base functionality for C++. Most is described as doxygen comments, this text gives an overview.

Common Base Class

Many classes are derived from object::Object, which defines some general methods. See there for more information.

For the case, that you need primitive C++ types, there are some wrappers:

C++ Type	Wrapper Class
void*	object::Pointer
specific pointer	object::TypedPointer (template class)
int	object::Integer
const char*	object::ConstString
char*	object::String

Containers

In the namespace container, several container classes are defined, which all deal with instances of object::Object.

Untyped Containers

In container::untyped, there are the following containers:

• container::untyped::Vector, a dynamically increases array,
• container::untyped::List, a linked list,
• container::untyped::HashTable, a hash table, and
• container::untyped::Stack, a stack.

All provide specific methods, but since they have a common base class, container::untyped::Collection, they all provide iterators, by the method container::untyped::Collection::iterator.

Typed Containers

container::typed provides wrappers for the container classes defined in container::untyped, which are more type safe, by using C++ templates.

Signals

For how to connect objects at run-time (to reduce dependencies), take a look at the signal namespace.

There is also a base class signal::ObservedObject, which implements signals for deletion.

Debugging

In debug.hh, there are some some useful macros for debugging messages, see the file for mor informations.

Identifying Classes at Runtime

If the class of an object must be identified at runtime, identity::IdentifiableObject should be used as the base class, see there for more details.

Miscellaneous

The misc namespace provides several miscellaneous stuff:

• In some contexts, it is necessary to compare objects (less/greater), for this, also misc::Comparable must be implemented. For example., container::untyped::Vector::sort and container::typed::Vector::sort cast the elements to misc::Comparable. This can be mixed with object::Object.
• misc::SimpleVector, a simple, template based vector class (not depending on object::Object),
• misc::StringBuffer, class for fast concatenation of a large number of strings,
• misc::BitSet implements a bitset.
• useful (template) functions (misc::min, misc::max), and
• some functions useful for runtime checks (misc::assert, misc::assertNotReached).